Restoring Farm Woodlands for Wildlife

By David Lindenmayer, Damian Michael, Mason Crane and 2 more

Millions of hectares of temperate woodland and billions of trees have been cleared from Australia’s agricultural landscapes. This has allowed land to be developed for cropping and grazing livestock but has also had significant environmental impacts, including erosion, salinity and loss of native plant and animal species.

Restoring Farm Woodlands for Wildlife focuses on why restoration is important and describes best practice approaches to restore farm woodlands for birds, mammals and reptiles. Based on 19 years of long-term research in temperate agricultural south-eastern Australia, this book addresses practical questions such as what, where and how much to plant, ways to manage plantings and how plantings change over time. It will be a key reference for farmers, natural resource management professionals and policy-makers concerned with revegetation and conservation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: Oct 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781486309665

Book preview

RESTORING FARM WOODLANDS FOR WILDLIFE

David Lindenmayer, Damian Michael, Mason Crane, Daniel Florance and Emma Burns

RESTORING FARM WOODLANDS FOR WILDLIFE

David Lindenmayer, Damian Michael, Mason Crane, Daniel Florance and Emma Burns

© David Lindenmayer, Damian Michael, Mason Crane, Daniel Florance, Emma Burns 2018

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO Publishing for all permission requests.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

Published by:

CSIRO Publishing

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Clayton South VIC 3169

Australia

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Front cover: (main image) planting near Wagga Wagga (D. Blair); (thumbnails, left to right)

crevice skink (D. Michael); sugar glider (M. Clancy); grey-crowned babblers (D. Smith).

Back cover: (left to right) grey fantail (G. Chapman); plantings near Holbrook,

NSW (M. Crane); swift parrot (G. Chapman).

Set in 11/13.5 Minion and Helvetica Neue

Edited by Joy Window (Living Language)

Cover design by Andrew Weatherill

Typeset by Thomson Digital

Index by Max McMaster

Printed in China by Toppan Leefung Printing Limited

CSIRO Publishing publishes and distributes scientific, technical and health science books, magazines and journals from Australia to a worldwide audience and conducts these activities autonomously from the research activities of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of, and should not be attributed to, the publisher or CSIRO. The copyright owner shall not be liable for technical or other errors or omissions contained herein. The reader/user accepts all risks and responsibility for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from using this information.

Original print edition:

The paper this book is printed on is in accordance with the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council®. The FSC® promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

About the authors

Chapter 1 Introduction

Where have the insights in this book come from?

Some of the other benefits of replanting on farms

Some notes about this book

A fundamentally important caveat

Chapter 2 Why plant?

Tackling biodiversity loss

Other reasons to establish plantings on a farm

Summary

Chapter 3 What to plant? The content of plantings

Use native plants

Create an understorey or shrub layer where possible

The ground layer

Planting density

Important additional key structures in plantings

How to plant – tubestock versus direct seeding

Summary

Chapter 4 How much and where to plant? The size, shape, location and surrounding configuration of plantings

How much to plant

The size of plantings

The shape of plantings

The topography of the landscape

Adjacency to other areas of native vegetation

Summary

Chapter 5 Ways to manage plantings

Avoid clearing – of remnant woodland, natural regrowth and plantings

Control the intensity of livestock grazing

Consider the kind and condition of fences around plantings

Think about the density (tree spacing) of plantings

Control weeds and feral animals

Maintain dead trees and logs

Don’t remove mistletoe

Add nest boxes – but use the right design and ensure they are well maintained

Avoid or limit some kinds of management

Plan for fire

Other kinds of management

Do interventions work?

Summary

Chapter 6 How do plantings change over time?

Changes in the vegetation structure of plantings

Some things that are missing

How do populations of animals in plantings change over time?

Plantings, time and long-term farm planning

Summary

Chapter 7 Conclusions: creating a whole-of-farm plan and some thoughts on the future

The critical need for whole-of-farm plans

Good monitoring is essential

Partnerships are necessary

Plantings and farming in a rapidly changing climate

More work to do

Concluding comments

References

Appendix

Index

Preface

‘When I was a kid in the 1940s, if I had been naughty then dad told us to get outside and chop down a tree. Now it is the opposite – planting trees is important and there’s far more vegetation than there used to be …’

This quote is from Professor Ross Cunningham, an expert statistician who grew up near Walla Walla in the southern Riverina and whose statistical insights underpin many of the projects that feature in the chapters in this book. This quote highlights the positive changes in psyche, and the corresponding changes in the landscape, in agricultural south-eastern Australia. It also underscores how far we have come in a relatively short time. Much of that journey is a legacy of hard work on the ground by groups like Landcare and staff from regional organisations such as Local Land Services in New South Wales and Catchment Management Authorities in Victoria. At the same time, there has been an array of long-term research studies quantifying the environmental benefits of farm restoration. Much of this book outlines the results of work by our team of researchers and field-based scientists at The Australian National University.

Our sincere hope is that science and on-the-ground management will continue to intersect in positive and productive ways so that the integration of agricultural production and on-farm conservation are seen as the norm for any agri-business or other farming enterprise.

The authors

December 2017

Acknowledgements

This book is based on years of careful research that could only have been completed through enduring collaborations with scientific colleagues as well as with numerous farmers and skilled practitioners from natural resource management agencies like Local Land Services, Catchment Management Authorities, Landcare and Greening Australia.

There have been many generous funders of our work over the past two decades. These include the Australian Research Council, the Department of Environment and Energy, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, the Calvert Jones Foundation, the New South Wales Environment Trust, the North East Catchment Management Authority, the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Murray Local Land Services, Riverina Local Land Services, Southern Tablelands Local Land Services, and private donations from generous benefactors including Kent Keith and John Mitchell. Other major supporters have included Holbrook and Tarcutta Landcare. Karen Gair was instrumental in helping raise funding for our work from several important philanthropic institutions.

Many people based regionally have been strong supporters of our work for a prolonged period of time but particular mention needs to be made of Emmo Willinck, Tom White, Kylie Durant and Dale Stringer.

Many researchers have had significant input to our long-term farm work. These include Sam Banks, Philip Barton, Richard Beggs, Donna Belder, Clare Crane, Don Driscoll, Claire Foster, Phil Gibbons, Nicole Hansen, Karen Ikin, Geoffrey Kay, Adrian Manning, Rebecca Montague-Drake, Alessio Mortelliti, Nicki Munro, Kat Ng, Sachiko Okada, Thea O’Loughlin, Jennifer Pierson, Stephanie Pulsford, Chloe Sato, Ben Scheele, David Smith, Nici Sweaney, Ayesha Tulloch, Martin Westgate and Ding Li Yong.

The studies which underpin the content presented in this book could not have been instigated, analysed or completed without the assistance of outstanding expert statistical scientists, in particular Wade Blanchard, Ross Cunningham, Peter Lane, Jeff Wood and Alan Welsh.

None of the work presented in this book could have been completed without the help and encouragement of hundreds of individual farmers who allowed us access to work on their land and frequently provided deep insights into key, and often highly innovative, ways to tackle difficult restoration problems on their properties.

We thank Tabitha Boyer who assisted with many key aspects of manuscript preparation, and Clive Hilliker for the production of some graphics.

John Manger from CSIRO Publishing has championed the publication of our work as a series of books over the past 15 years and we are deeply grateful to him for his support and encouragement.

About the authors

David Lindenmayer is a Research Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow at The Australian National University who has specialised in established large-scale, long-term ecological monitoring and research programs in the temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia. He has published more than 700 scientific articles and 45 books on conservation, restoration and natural resource management.

Dr Damian Michael is a Senior Research Officer in Ecology at The Australian National University. He has broad interests in landscape ecology, biodiversity conservation, herpetology and understanding the ecological importance of rocky outcrops in agricultural landscapes. He manages several large-scale biodiversity monitoring programs in New South Wales and has published 90 scientific papers and six books.

Mason Crane has been a field-based research officer with the Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University for the past 15 years. During this time he has implemented and worked across numerous research projects examining biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. His main responsibility is to coordinate research programs associated with the South West Slopes Restoration Study. While having a broad interest in ecology and a wide range of taxa, Mason is in the final stages of a PhD program focusing on the conservation of the Squirrel Glider.

Daniel Florance has been a research officer with the Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University for the past 7 years and is responsible for field-based, long-term ecological research in south-east Australia. He has a strong interest in the conservation of our native woodland ecosystems, and using scientific research to provide practical evidence-based solutions to implement conservation within the agricultural landscape.

Emma Burns is a member of the Fenner School of Environment and Society. Currently she is the Director of Sustainable Farms, an ANU transdisciplinary initiative. She also sits on the Australian Ecosystem Science Council. Emma has a PhD in population genetics and phylogeography. She has held positions in consulting, government policy (NSW and Commonwealth), and research management. Emma has published on diverse topics in ecological research, conservation management and environmental policy.

‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the next best time to plant a tree is now.’ (Anonymous)

1

Introduction

Millions of hectares of temperate woodland and billions of trees have been cleared from Australia’s agricultural landscapes (Walker et al. 1993; Lindenmayer et al. 2010a). While this has facilitated the development of areas for cropping and pastures for livestock grazing, it also has had significant environmental impacts. These include rising water tables and secondary salinity, soil erosion, and losses of native plant and animal species. These environmental effects also have had significant negative impacts on farm-level productivity and ultimately profitability of farming enterprises. Restoring some of the native vegetation cover is one of the key ways to tackle these major environmental (and often financial) problems.

This book focuses on why restoration is important and describes some of the latest science about how to most effectively restore farms, primarily for different groups of animals, particularly birds, mammals and reptiles. Much of the focus of this book is on tree plantings, with reference to shrubs and undergrowth. This is for good reason; most problems with the loss of native plants and animals, rising water tables, increased soil erosion, and falling farm productivity correspond directly or indirectly with long-term losses in tree cover. Another focus of the book is on farm wildlife. This is because it has been the target of nearly